FROM

Worldwide, including the U.S. and U.K. – Trophy aerial hunting, canned
animal “hunts” on game ranches, live captive turkey shoots, gamebird
(pheasant and partridge) shoots (Cheney specials), live pigeon shoots, even
captive lion hunts in South Africa. This shameful practice is killing for
the sheer pleasure of it; these are cowardly slobs that are too lazy to
actually hunt, they just want to shoot fish in a barrel. Even regular
hunters despise them.

Hunters say the thrill of hunting comes from the chase not from the kill.
The booming canned hunt business tells a different story.
Every year in Britain, around 40 million pheasants and partridges are
mass-produced like commercial poultry so that they can be shot down by
wealthy ‘guns’. This bloody and brutal end to their lives is the final
insult. From birth, they are kept in cages, sheds and pens, in which disease
and death are a daily feature.

Canned hunts are held at private trophy hunting facilities where shooters
pay to kill exotic and native animals——even endangered species——trapped
within fenced enclosures. Animals on canned hunts often come from private
breeders, animal dealers, and even zoos and circuses. Frequently, the
animals have been hand-raised and bottle-fed, so they have lost their fear
of people.

Even in large enclosures on these so-called game farms, animals are lured
with bait to a location where a shooter waits, thus removing any element of
sportsmanship. The International Union for the Conservations of Nature and
Natural Resources lists the scimitar-horned oryx as extinct in the wild; the
addax, California bighorn sheep, European bison and pere david deer as
critically endangered; the dama gazelle, nubian ibex, Arabian oryx and
markhor as endangered; the blackbuck and bongo as near threatened; and the
aoudad, eld’s deer, barasingha, African lion, mouflon, yak and tahr as
vulnerable, yet these animals are all shot regularly on canned hunting
ranches.

As many as half a million so-called “hunters” pay hundreds and often
thousands of dollars to some 4,000 canned hunt promoters in the U.S. alone,
to be sure of a kill — even if the chase is just a matter of finding the
best hole in a cage to poke a weapon through. Shooting fish in a barrel may
soon be not a metaphor but an option for those who can’t afford to kill a
captive African lion ($5,995, “with good mane,” according to a recent price
list).

In the canned hunt scenario, animals are fenced in or kept in cages until
a “hunter” calls for the beast’s release, at which time the “sport”
commences. Often the released animal can only run in circles around an
enclosed compound (some smaller than an acre), without an escape route. Some
even make desperate runs for safety under parked cars, but to no avail. The
animals, including some exotic species, are fired upon at nearly point blank
range, ensuring the “sportsman” of a kill. After witnessing a hunt, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service special agent Bill Talkin said “None of the
animals got more than 100 feet from the cage when they were shot.”

The typical canned hunter is an older, wealthy man who wants guaranteed
success of bringing home a trophy to mount, without the added hassle of
trekking into the woods. The ill-fated animals include endangered species
such as African leopards, exotic cats, Bengal tigers, grizzly bears, etc.
And while most canned hunt promoters know better than to openly advertise
opportunities to shoot endangered species, most trophy hunters know how to
wangle the deals they want — shooting a couple of animals legally on initial
visits while getting to know the staff, flashing money; dropping hints.

The most popular form of canned hunting in North America is captive
bird-shooting. It is estimated that about 55 million tame birds are killed
in canned hunts each year in the U.S.

President George Bush celebrated his election in 1988 with a bird-killing
spree at the Lazy F Ranch near Beeville, Texas. When questioned about it, he
protested “These aren’t animals, these are wild quail.” And this is the type
of “hunt” Dick Cheney was participating in when he shot his friend in the
face– thus highlighting how utterly stupid this activity is.

And the worst: every year in Pennsylvania, cowardly “hunters” slaughter
harmless pigeons and shoot turkeys bred in cages and chained to tires. What
more needs to be said about these clowns?

Fair Use Notice: This document, and others on our web site, may contain copyrighted
material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.
We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use
of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).
If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use,
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.